Arsenic Poisoning Caused by Intentional Contamination of Coffee at a Church Gathering—An Epidemiological Approach to a Forensic Investigation

Abstract: An outbreak of apparent food‐borne illness following a church gathering was promptly reported to the Maine Bureau of Health. Gastrointestinal symptoms among church attendees were initially attributed to consumption of leftover sandwiches that had been served the previous day. However, a rapid epidemiological and laboratory assessment revealed the etiology of illness, including the death of an elderly gentleman, was not food‐borne in origin. A criminal investigation determined that deliberate arsenic contamination of the brewed coffee by one of the church members was the source of the outbreak. Public health officials and criminal investigators must be aware that intentional biologic aggression can initially present as typical unintentional disease outbreaks. Practitioners must also consider the need to properly maintain and preserve potential forensic evidence. This case demonstrates the key role public health practitioners may play in criminal investigations.     

An Empirical Analysis of 30 Years of U.S. Juvenile and Adult Sexual Homicide Offender Data: Race and Age Differences in the Victim–Offender Relationship

Abstract: Little is known about the racial patterns of crimes committed by sexual homicide offenders (SHOs). This study examined race and age influences on victim–offender relationship for juvenile and adult SHOs. A large sample (N = 3868) from the Supplemental Homicide Reports (1976–2005) was used. Analyses of victim–offender patterns included examining victim age effects (child, adolescent, adult, and elderly). The findings revealed several race‐ and age‐based differences. Black offenders were significantly overrepresented in the SHO population. This finding held for juveniles and adults independently. White SHOs were highly likely to kill within their race, “intra‐racially” (range 91–100%) across four victim age categories, whereas Black SHOs killed both intra‐racially (range 24–82%) and inter‐racially (18–76%), with the likelihood of their killing inter‐racially increasing as the age of the victim increased. This study underscores the importance of considering victim–offender racial patterns in sexual murder investigations, and it offers practical implications for offender profiling.     

Perceptions of gangs among prosecutors in an emerging gang city

Gangs were a target of widespread political and social attention during the 1990s, and despite a short-lived lull in policy focus, gangs are recently receiving increased attention from policymakers. In spite of political concern about gangs, very little research had examined perceptions of gangs. By conducting face-to-face interviews with thirty of thirty-five county prosecutors, this study was among the first to examine prosecutors' perspectives of gangs in Gainesville, Florida, an area that could be considered an “emerging” gang city. Themes from the interviews were extracted and included prosecutorial perceptions of the: (1) definition and prevalence of gangs in Gainesville, Florida; (2) personal and social characteristics of gang members; (3) reasons people join gangs; and (4) best approaches to stop or eliminate gangs. The ways in which prosecutors' perspectives mirror prior research on gangs is highlighted.     

Government versus Opposition at the Polls: How Governing Status Affects the Impact of Policy Positions

We argue that governing status affects how voters react to extreme versus moderate policy positions. Being in government forces parties to compromise and to accept ideologically unappealing choices as the best among available alternatives. Steady exposure to government parties in this role and frequent policy compromise by governing parties lead voters to discount the positions of parties when they are in government. Hence, government parties do better in elections when they offset this discounting by taking relatively extreme positions. The relative absence of this discounting dynamic for opposition parties, on the other hand, means that they perform better by taking more moderate positions, as the standard Downsian model would predict. We present evidence from national elections in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, 1971–2005, to support this claim.     

Correlates of syllogistic reasoning skills in middle childhood and early adolescence

Sixth, eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders, and college students, were given a preliminary test of categorical syllogistic reasoning ability. In a subsequent session, subjects were given other categorical syllogisms and asked to depict as many of the possible relationships between the A, B, and C terms of the syllogism as they could. The number of possible relationships, and the time it took to decide if other relationships were possible, did not differ among the noncollege groups. The results indicated, however, that the correlates of reasoning proficiency differed for those subjects younger and those older than about age 13.Support for this research was provided by the Spencer Foundation, whose generosity is greatfully acknowledged.Received the Ph.D. in Psychology and the M.S.E. in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania, and has research interests in the areas of formal and everyday reasoning, the development of reasoning skills, decision making, and conceptual development.Received the Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and has research interests in the areas of language acquisition, conceptual development, and the development of reasoning skills.     

Prison labor and recidivism

This study examines recidivism among inmates who participated in prison industry programs during confinement and a comparison group of inmates who were not employed in prison industry. Industry participants had lower recidivism rates than nonparticipants, but when differences between the groups on other characteristics associated with recidivism were controlled, the recidivism rates of participants and nonparticipants were virtually identical. A proportional hazards regression model was estimated that showed that, net of other variables, the effect of prison industry participation on the probability of postrelease felony arrest was small and insignificant. The findings are discussed in the context of existing correctional outcome research and recent developments in prison work programs.     

CAPINDEX: Abstract descriptors

Both research and public policy efforts to determine levels of spouse abuse have been compromised, with significant incidence either uncounted or undercounted, owing to numerous factors: social stigma, victim guilt, evasive public policy, and sparse and/or technically inadequate research attempts. The CAPINDEX (Crimes-Against-Persons Index) is an estimation technique that tackles this persistent problem by using rates of well-reported violent crimes to predict the incidence of poorly reported violent crimes like spouse abuse. The numerical bases of the CAPINDEX, murder and aggravated assault, are well-reported and not subject to social class skewing. The relational approach of the technique is consistent with structural, cultural consistency, and ecological theories of violence. The technique is not only efficacious in estimating spouse abuse, but applicable to estimating sexual assault rates.